General: Eh; It was fine. It was one of those episodes that needed to squeeze in a lot of character story so it sped through the motions without letting us really sit with some really deep heavy emotions and plot points. Also, the more we go on, the more Gabrielle Anwar bothers me. Not enough Alice, Ivy or Roni.
Rating: 7/10
LIKED
–“To be honest, not since she was 4.”
–“It’s air freshener!”
–Rumple making people hold the dagger and asking if they “feel” anything is fascinating.
–Rumple talking about Bae will always make me sentimental and nostalgic for the old days of OUAT when Rumple the Father and Nealfire the Lost Boy was part of the heart of this show.
MIXED
–“There’s always my way!” *a mushroom appears on the mantel* They aren’t going for comedy here but I laughed a lot.
–Squeezing a mushroom releases clear liquid? Sure.
–I’m so confused. Is the Guardian supposed to be a new Dark One or is it the person who can live in the tower? Or is it both? Or neither? This is why introducing new mythology into a six year long series is wonky.
DISLIKED
–Holy fast plotting, Batman. There’s almost no set up for Rapunzel being trapped in the tower. It all happens in about 2 mins.
–Really? It took Rapunzel all that time to realize that if she left her hair inside the tower she could leave? Based on all the hatch marks she was in the tower for a *long time* and she never tried this before?
–Someone needs to teach other writers to let us live in the lives of the characters. There’s so much internal emotional angst to mined from Rapunzel’s story with her daughters and Marcus but they just jump from one plot point to the next. I want to see Rapunzel’s emotional state living in the tower, after she sees Cecelia and her trying to live without her kids and Marcus, or how they apparently reunited. But instead they just jump from Big Plot Point A to Big Plot Point B. Its just enough to make us slightly sympathetic but not enough to truly make us care. I mean does anyone remember when characters stores took place over multiple episodes and not all crammed into one?
–So the mushroom did what exactly?